The Cricket Writers panel give their take on the 'schoolboy spat' between James Anderson and Ravindra Jadeja

Did Anderson's sledging cause row?

Last Updated: 03/08/14 2:18pm

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The Cricket Writers panel give their take on the 'schoolboy spat' between James Anderson and Ravindra Jadeja.

The International Cricket Council has found both England's James Anderson and India's Ravindra Jadeja not guilty of breaching its Code of Conduct.

The England fast bowler could have been banned for up to four Test matches if he was found guilty of a Level 3 charge of "pushing and abusing" India all-rounder Jadeja in the pavilion stairwell during the first Test at Trent Bridge.

But ICC judicial commissioner Gordon Lewis decided neither player transgressed, meaning Anderson is free after all to play on his home ground.

The verdict will do little to improve relations between the two sides ahead of the fourth Test as India have made no secret that part of their motivation for their allegations against Anderson was in retaliation of his incessant sledging.

"It was a strange one – it seemed to be MS Dhoni’s personal crusade," said The Sun's John Etheridge.

"All along it was clear that it was one teams word against another teams word. There were no independent witnesses – there was this red herring of possible video footage but that was never seriously considered to be in place. It was slightly odd that Dhoni pursued it so hard.

"I think it is because they are fed up with Anderson’s sledging over the years. There is no question that out on the field he uses some pretty choice language but that is a separate issue. You cannot uses his sledges as evidence that perhaps he has pushed or physically manhandled somebody in the change room.

"However It is not an attractive site to see Jimmy Anderson three balls an over launching into a tirade of verbal. I think there are ways of maintaining your aggression as a fast bowler without swearing at the batsmen every other ball.”

Thrown out

Lawrence Booth agrees and believes that no-one has come out of this situation well.

"I think it is as John says was years of sledging by Anderson," said the Daily Mail and Wisden man.

"I think the BCCI made a mistake by briefing journalists behind the scenes that they partly wanted to get Anderson because of past events, I thought that weakened their case.

“That element of the whole thing has been overlooked. No one wants to see Anderson sledging and that is partly what India’s motivation was for pressing the charges were. It would be great if he put a sock in it for a while and concentrated on his bowling because he is bowling very well.”

"No one emerged from it very well, not even the ECB. The only reason they pressed charged against Ravindra Jadeja was in retaliation of the charges pressed against Anderson. It all felt like tit for tat. I don’t think that the ICC came out of it that either well because on what evidence was David Boon downgrading Jadeja from two to one?

"He obviously thought he had done something but the Justice Gordon Lewis decided after six hours of evidence he took ten minutes to throw it all out.”